DENVER – Curtis Martin acknowledged that he messed up. Keith Byars said he’d do everything the same if given the opportunity.

Both lost fumbles that contributed heavily to the Jets losing the AFC title game yesterday to the Broncos.

Martin fumbled on the second series of the game. Byars fumbled in the second quarter, losing the ball to a Bill Romanowski hit after he gained 10 yards on a pass to the Broncos’ 18-yard line in what was a scoreless game.

“I make that play 99 times out of 100,” Byars said. “As many times as I’ve caught that ball in the flat … I do everything I can to fight for extra yards. I don’t know how to run out of bounds.

“But that’s one I can live with, one I have to live with. I didn’t have the ball away from my body. I had the ball tucked. If I had to do it all over again in the same situation I would do everything the same exact way, because it’s always been a formula for success. I’ve done it many times.

“It’s something where you just have to trust your technique and trust your ability. The guy [Romanowski] just happened to make a one-in-a-million play and hit me at the exact spot where the ball came out.”

For Martin, the fumble was his second in as many weeks. He lost a fumble in last week’s playoff win over the Jaguars, and the Jets got away with it.

“I was just trying to work for a couple of extra yards and get on the ground and as I was going down someone [Alfred Williams] got the ball,” Martin said. “That’s something that I can’t do. We can’t afford to make those mistakes and beat teams like Denver. They’re great champions, and there’s no way you can make mistakes like that and beat them.”

The Jets, too, could get nothing going on the ground, as Martin was held to 14 yards on 13 carries, an average of 1.1 yards per carry.

That put all the pressure on Vinny Testaverde. And in the end, the Jets’ lack of balance hurt them as the Bronco defense was able to tee off late, though Testaverde wasn’t sacked.

“I thought we were going to come in here and get the running game going,” Martin said. “But they played great defense. I noticed there was a man matched up on me everywhere I went. They pursued the ball really well, and they wrapped up. They didn’t just hit, they made tackles.”

Still, even with the nonexistent running attack, the Jets were in position to win the game, but …

“We beat ourselves,” Jet center Kevin Mawae said.

Added Byars: “In a championship game, it’s always going to come down to the team that makes the least amount of mistakes. We made more mistakes than [the Broncos] did.”

So the Broncos move on to Miami to defend their Super Bowl title, and the Jets go home.